by Mike Lopresti, USA TODAY Sports

by Mike Lopresti, USA TODAY Sports

Kentucky on the bubble? Wisconsin alone in the Big Ten lead? The RPI power ratings being flooded by that brute of a basketball conference ... the Mountain West?

And did the hottest team in the Pac-12 really once lose to Cal Poly?

Just what's going on out there?

In two months the NCAA will announce the cast for its little tournament, and much must be sorted between now and then. March Madness has to beware January judgments.

For instance, we need to find out ...

How much trouble the blue bloods might truly be facing.

Kentucky is 64th in one latest RPI ranking, nine spots behind North Dakota State. John Calipari is to playing freshmen as McDonald's is to selling cheeseburgers, but getting the kids to gel this year is obviously going a tad slowly. He's been starting four, and that hasn't happened in Lexington since 1944.

"In the last seven, eight years, I have coached teams that absolutely womped on people,'' Calipari told reporters after beating Tennessee on Tuesday. ``And this ain't one of them.''

Meanwhile, North Carolina is seventh in the early Atlantic Coast Conference standings and 47th in the RPI -- eight spots behind Bucknell.

But they'll both be there at the end, right? Right?

How long Louisville plans on staying No. 1.

One of the great anomalies of this sport, given the Cardinals' lush tradition, is this being only the second week they have ever been at the top of the polls. Defense is driving the surge; nearly 33% of Louisville's points have come off turnovers. The ranking might one day go, but the defense shouldn't.

Here's another Cardinal stat that has nothing to do with getting to No. 1 â?? or maybe it does. The team GPA for the fall semester was 3.41.

What's up with Indiana.

The preseason No. 1 Hoosiers have moments when they are the Indiana Juggernauts. But they were also beaten by a Butler walk-on, nearly blew a 23-point lead at home to Minnesota, and lost for the fifth consecutive time in Bloomington to Wisconsin - something that had not happened against any team since 1923.

The Hoosiers are plenty good, but have questions to answer.

When Duke gets do-it-all forward Ryan Kelly back. And what happens until then.

Kelly hurt his foot last season and missed the NCAA tournament. Duke lost its first game to Lehigh. He was injured again last week. Duke lost its No. 1 ranking at North Carolina State. We might have spotted a trend.

"We have to be hungry, clip coupons, look for sales, '' Mike Krzyzewski told the Duke website about life without Kelly. "We have to play poor. We've been accustomed to playing rich, and rich is over.''

How the new up-tempo style continues to work at UCLA.

The Bruins' faithful were ready to stir fry Ben Howland when UCLA lost to Cal Poly. Another lousy season for a deteriorating program. Then Josh Smith and Tyler Lamb quit, and it was like addition by subtraction. The Bruins have won nine in a row, using four freshmen and three North Carolina transfers, averaging 78.5 points as Howland - who always preferred his offense straight vanilla - has gone tutti frutti and loosened the shackles.

How low it goes for Texas.

Talk about enigmas. Texas leads the nation in field goal shooting defense, and shouldn't that mean something? Not when you're 304th in the nation in field goal shooting. Hence, 0-3 in the Big 12 and 8-8 overall. Imagine what the shooting percentage would be if the Longhorns could guard themselves.

Who is the fairest of them all among the giant-killers.

Butler and Gonzaga meet Saturday, and the fact both were willing to play at this stage of the season is a shining example to all the big-boy schools with pastry schedules.

Then there's the band of thieves at Virginia Commonwealth with their havoc defense, leading the nation with more than 13 steals a game.

Which leagues have the goods, and which don't

We knew the Big Ten was stacked, but really. Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State and Michigan State all began the season ranked in the top 14, but it's Wisconsin leading at the moment and Minnesota with the best RPI. The Gophers haven't won an NCAA tournament game since 1997.

One look at how few Southeastern Conference teams are mentioned glowingly and you know it's not football season anymore. Meanwhile, when did the Mountain West become basketball's Swiss Alps? MWC teams have won 79.2% of their non-conference games, and New Mexico, Boise State, Wyoming, UNLV and San Diego State are all making noise the selection committee can hear. The league's most recent RPI had it only behind the Big Ten.

San Diego State is the nation's master at streaks. The Aztecs have won six consecutive overtime games, 32 in a row against schools from the state of California (that means you, UCLA) and 84 consecutive games when they had the lead with five minutes to go.

That might not mean much in March, but it's certainly more impressive at the moment than Kentucky's RPI.